The present invention relates to a magnetic head for use in combination with a video tape, a hard disk or a floppy disk, and to a method of fabricating such a magnetic head.
In the magnetic recording field, reduction in the magnetic head gap of a magnetic head has been required to deal with increase in recording density in recording data on recording tacks of a recording medium. The applicant of the present patent application has previously proposed a thin-film magnetic head for recording data on narrow tracks, having a magnetic core formed of a film of a thickness equal to the track width. This previously proposed thin-film magnetic head comprises, as shown in FIG. 3, a nonmagnetic substrate 1, a thin-film magnetic path 5 having a thickness equal to the track width, having a magnetic head gap g, and formed by forming a first thin-film magnetic core 3 of a thickness equal to the track width on the nonmagnetic substrate 1, forming a second thin-film magnetic core 4 of a thickness equal to that of the first thin-film magnetic core 3 on the nonmagnetic substrate 1 with a gap spacer 2 formed between the opposite side surfaces of the first thin-film magnetic core 3 and the second thin-film magnetic core 4, and a protective plate 6 put on the first thin-film magnetic core 3 and the second thin-film magnetic core 4 (Japanese Patent Laid-open (Kokai) No. Hei 2-14411). Most thin-film magnetic heads having magnetic cores formed of films of a thickness equal to the track width are provided, similarly to a bulk head, with a wound coil 6 as shown in FIG. 3 or a spiral coil, which is employed generally in conventional thin-film magnetic head.
A magnetic head 10 as shown in FIG. 4 has been applied to practical use in combination with a hard disk. The magnetic head 10 has a floating slider 8, and a thin-film magnetic head element 9 formed on one end surface of the slider 8 and having a thin-film magnetic core formed so that the direction of its thickness is perpendicular to the direction of the track width.
The thin-film magnetic head 7 shown in FIG. 3 is capable of coping with the reduction of the track width. However, the wound coil similar to that for a bulk head requires a troublesome coil winding operation, needs a large winding aperture 11 to form a wound coil of a large capacity and increases the length of the magnetic path, which affects adversely the improvement of the efficiency of the thin-film magnetic head. The spiral coil formed of a thin-film conductor increases dc resistance entailing problems attributable to noise.
In the magnetic head 10 of FIG. 4 employing the thin-film magnetic head element 9, the direction of the track width is perpendicular to the direction of the thickness of the film forming the magnetic core. Such a construction entails difficulty in controlling the magnetic domain taking into consideration wiggle to deal with a narrow track.